NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH - MARKETING ACTION AND LAUNCH TACTICS FOR HIGH-TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS

The new product launch is a critical stage of any new product developm ent process, The success of the product is likely to depend heavily on how well marketing managers deal with the launch. Very little has bee n written on the kinds of tactics marketers use to launch their produc ts. This article aims to rectify this by presenting the results of a d etailed investigation into the actions and tactics marketers employ to launch high-technology products. A framework of 22 tactics, based upo n 103 different marketing actions, is presented. The circumstances in which the tactics are used are described in terms of technological mat urity. The results show that for revolutionary innovations, marketers tend to emphasize the technological component of their products and co ncentrate more on positioning and attack tactics than on marker prepar ation or targeting.